EMITT hosts Yemen as guest country

STANBUL- Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay has said that he was honored to see Yemen as the guest country of the 15th East Mediterranean Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT).

In a joint press conference with Yemeni deputy Minister of Tourism Omar Babelghaeth at Istanbul’s TUYAP International Fair and Congress Center, Minister Gunay said that Turkey was ready to share its knowledge and experiences with the brotherly people of Yemen.

“Turkey and Yemen share historic ties. Yemen is a colorful and interesting country with geographic diversity. Yemen has important amounts of natural resources. I sincerely hope that these resources would be utilized in the development of Yemen”, Gunay said.

Yemen is a new tourist destination but has enermous potential. I am pleased and honored to see Yemen as the “guest country” of EMITT. We are ready to share our experiences with Yemen, Gunay noted.

Babelghaeth, in his part, said that Yemen was a unique country with a coastline of 2,400 kilometers.

Yemen is a country worth seeing, Babelghaeth said.

Yemen was visited by 1.1 million people in 2010 and earned 903 million USD from tourism, Babelghaeth said.

With your support, we can develop our tourism sector. Our relations go back decades. We do have family ties with Turkey. There are people living in Yemen who are of Turkish origin. I sincerely invite you to visit Yemen and make an investment, Babelghaeth said.

Following the press conference, Minister Gunay met his Palestinian counterpart Khoulord Daibes in a meeting that was closed to the press corps.

The president’s speech also contained a hint of postponing the elections scheduled for next April, which the ruling party decided earlier to hold without waiting for the dialogue process to be completed.

President Saleh alluded to the possibility of abandonin the legislative elections in April, responding to the demands of the parliamentary opposition which had organized popular movements hostile to him.

Saleh also called the JMP to a meeting with parliament, in which he said Shoura Council members would return to the dialogue and form a government of national unity.

Saleh presented an initiative which includes the resumption of dialogue between the ruling party and the parliamentary opposition in what is known as the quartet.

“I call on the opposition to freeze all planned protests, rallies and sit-ins,” he had added.